When my son was an infant I remember reading a research study that found that running a bedroom fan had been shown to decrease the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). At that point I decided that we would run a fan in his nursery and we started doing this the day he made the move from the bassinet in our room to his crib. My husband and I always turned the fan on when we put him down for a nap or for bed in the evening. What started out as a way to do whatever I could to reduce the risk of SIDS also turned into a great way to provide background white noise while he slept. The constant hum of the fan became something he recognized and he began associating the fan [...]